Review: StarCraft II

Tharwen

Ep. VI: Return of the turret
May 7, 2009
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Nice little reference at the end there :D

I see Blizzard has, once again, bestowed some wonderfully creative cheat codes on us.
 

Xocrates

New member
May 4, 2008
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Tiamat666 said:
So then Mensk has been dealt a blow and suddenly we make buddies with his son and his greatest general and assaulting the Zerg is the most important thing ever. WTF? I just humiliated the emperor infront of the whole galaxy and his greatest generals decide it's okay to work with me now in order to save sweetheart Kerrigan and destroy the Zerg (yet again)? That happened way too fast. And it's just weird.
You had been working for Mengsk son since the start of the campaign, you just didn't know it. In the same way that Mengsk didn't know what his son was up to. Raynor also makes it quite clear why he's tagging along (not only to save Kerrigan, but because there's no point in beating mengsk if then the zerg just kill them all). And the general is only there because of Valerian, and before Raynor saves his ass he makes it quite clear he doesn't like having Raynor around.

I might agree on the "way too fast", but it certainly wasn't a WTF moment.
 

Virgil

#virgil { display:none; }
Legacy
Jun 13, 2002
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Tiamat666 said:
Then there are "sub-plots" that get started but don't quite follow through. Tosh says something about a traitor on board. I never did find out who that was. Who is in control of Tychus "kill switch"? I still don't know. Also Tychus is constantly portrayed as a destabilizing factor, but it never quite follows through with that plot line and he simply fights on your side up until the end as if everything is just dandy. The character development especially with Tychus seems very fuzzy and ambivalent at times.
My guess is that those are hooks for the future games in the trilogy. This is just The Fellowship of the Ring - some questions likely don't get answered until later on.
 

Tiamat666

Level 80 Legendary Postlord
Dec 4, 2007
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Xocrates said:
I might agree on the "way too fast", but it certainly wasn't a WTF moment.
Maybe I need a second playthrough to fully grasp everything that was going on there. It could be that I missed some details on the way because I was too enthusiastic about making progress. But it certainly felt very WTF to me when I found Raynor on board of the Korhal starship just after the mayhem I caused in the capital.
 

BioTox

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Nov 19, 2009
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I finished the campaign last night, had to slow down because the GF was at the house, and it was definitely worth my $60. I kind of expected the ending but only from the clues in the campaign. I probably would of played the campaign alone in a couple days if I didn't have to work or log off. There was enough variety in the missions for me to stay interested. The missions where you only have a couple guys are the best, in my opinion.

Who cares if you have a DRM. Don't buy the game or buy the game and suck it up. That's really the only choice you have in the matter. IDK if you can't install/play a million copies on your PC and all of your friends. Make them buy their own copy. You can't play a LAN game? Connect to the net and join your friends. It's not that hard.
 

Internet Kraken

Animalia Mollusca Cephalopada
Mar 18, 2009
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Aside from the ending of the game being a huge let down for me, I really enjoyed the Starcraft 2 campaign. Blizzard put tons of effort into it. I love all of the little details that add flavor to the setting. They're a nice addition for me since I love to learn everything I can about the setting, technology, creatures, and factions whenever a game interests me. All of the missions are surprisingly varied, having their own unique hazards and objectives I didn't expect Blizzard to implement. I expect the campaign to be highly similar to the Starcraft campaign. Instead, it was very different (in a good way).

And while the animated cutscenes are (usually) impressive, I still prefer it when games tell the story through the gameplay. Which is why my favorite mission in the game was the last Protoss one. It has far more impact because you're the one in control, rather than watching characters in a cutscene.
 

Tiamat666

Level 80 Legendary Postlord
Dec 4, 2007
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Cristian Capatana said:
...paying only 60 bucks feels like you are wearing a ski-mask and ripping off Blizzard at gunpoint.
Puh-fucking-lease, if this was any other RTS you wouldn't be so lenient. It has standard mechanics, a cliche story (ancient artifact, prophecy... really?!?, the RPG elements are bolted on and don't really make a difference and those achievements are just another way of bloating the thing, finishing a mission is not an achievement, it's the whole friggin' point of the game!

This is just an average but well polished game and not the paragon of perfection every review wants to jam down our throats.
I agree that the story is very chiché. I think Blizzard should tone done the "Epicness" of their games and instead create an intriguing story by good and creative writing. Seriously, you can only save the universe this many times before it starts getting old. And the *Craft type games have had more of their share of prophecies and artifacts. I remember my soul hurting a little when they started talking of prophecies and artifacts and the 3rd or 4th impending Zerg apocalypse... but I didn't let in ruin the otherwise great experience.

StarCraft 2 is not an "average" game. Perhaps it has "standard" game mechanics, as all RTS games do. But then it is made so much richer by the strategic choices you have to do between missions and the story presentation. I've also never played an RTS with "dynamic mission elements" before, such as rising lava, nighttime zombie raids or burning planet surfaces.
 

Internet Kraken

Animalia Mollusca Cephalopada
Mar 18, 2009
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Tiamat666 said:
Based on the ending, it seems like Mengsk was in control of the kill switch for Tychus. Which to me makes no sense. If Mengsk could communicate with Tychus and control his suits functions, why the hell didn't he stop Tychus from plowing through his army in the Odin!?
 

gmfaux

New member
Apr 20, 2010
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The first line of this review tells me you pay too much attention to Internet denizens.
Blizzard spent >10 years working on this game, of course it's a full game.

Original? No. See Warhammer 40000.
Modern? In graphics only. In terms of gameplay this game fits better in 1999 than 2010. They've pretty much ignored everything that's happened in the RTS genre since SC1.

Nostalgic? Yes.
A good primer for the RTS genre? Yes.
Well-crafted? Yes. The Blizzard polish is in full effect.
Compelling story? That depends on how much you like sci-fi space opera. A plot synopsis of SC1 is a pre-requisite for anyone new to the series to get full enjoyment out of the story.

Bottom line: It's amazing how they've managed to give such a classic game a modern look and feel. Any fan of space opera or SC1 should purchase. Also a great game for someone wanting to learn the fundamentals of RTS. Blizzard played it exceptionally safe with this game.

Your review was a little too starry-eyed for my taste.
 

Blue_vision

Elite Member
Mar 31, 2009
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Zhukov said:
Question for those who have bought it:

Is it worth getting if I have no interest in multiplayer and kinda-sorta enjoyed the original?
Another question like this:

Is it worth getting it if you'll like the story campaign and are kind of interested in the multiplayer, but know that you're going to be terrible at it? I'm assuming that plenty of multiplayer... players are veterans from the original starcraft; is it possible to get into multiplayer, maybe after going through the story, and not getting the shit kicked out of you to the point of frustration?
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Cristian Capatana said:
...paying only 60 bucks feels like you are wearing a ski-mask and ripping off Blizzard at gunpoint.
Puh-fucking-lease, if this was any other RTS you wouldn't be so lenient. It has standard mechanics, a cliche story (ancient artifact, prophecy... really?!?, the RPG elements are bolted on and don't really make a difference and those achievements are just another way of bloating the thing, finishing a mission is not an achievement, it's the whole friggin' point of the game!

This is just an average but well polished game and not the paragon of perfection every review wants to jam down our throats.
There is nothing about this game that is even remotely average ... other than the dialogue.

Blizzard really needs to poach some people from BioWare on that end.
 

Guyovick

New member
Nov 5, 2009
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chstens said:
Greg Tito said:
Review: StarCraft 2
I thought you were told to never use that phrase again... Terrible damage...
I too would also like to add my disgust of that phrase, even though it is used in jest. [a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/terrible"]Terrible[/a] could either mean severe or it could mean extremely bad. That was a terrible storm or that was terrible coffee. The context is supposed to disambiguate which is meant. While I can eventually disambiguate what is meant, my first take is always the 'terrible coffee' meaning. This phrase is used a couple of times in the game.

There are other elements of the writing that aren't up to par.
I completed the mission that broadcasted the incriminating audio file and was treated to a cutscene of Raynor laughing about how they finally were able to take down the emperor of the Dominion. In the very next mission I team up with the emperor's son to defeat the Zerg and my ship's crew start to riot because they were afraid I was going to side with the Dominion.

We just started the rebellion against the Dominion! How could anyone possibly believe I was siding with the Dominion?

These and other inconsistencies in the writing led me to believe that Blizzard didn't have any professional writers who worked on Starcraft II. It seems like Blizzard let their programmers write everything (and then do the voice acting).

Don't get me wrong, the actual campaign gameplay is really good. It is just the plot, the writing and the voice acting that I can't stand.
 

Xocrates

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May 4, 2008
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Blue_vision said:
Is it worth getting it if you'll like the story campaign and are kind of interested in the multiplayer, but know that you're going to be terrible at it? I'm assuming that plenty of multiplayer... players are veterans from the original starcraft; is it possible to get into multiplayer, maybe after going through the story, and not getting the shit kicked out of you to the point of frustration?
The game comes with single player challenges specifically designed to teach you some core multiplayer tactics and help you improve your micro, as well as having some fairly decent skirmish AI.

Beyond that, the multiplayer has a practice league with newbie-friendly maps to help you come to grips with the game. Once you're ready for some real competition you'll have 5 placement matched designed to determine your level of skill which the matchmaking will use to try and find suitable opponents. It also saves the replays of all your games, including a bunch of info such how fast players were gathering money, so you can study them and help you improve.

And while for some stupid reason, the matchmaking seems to be placing me against players above my league a lot lately, it still does a fairly good job in ensuring they're not too much above you.

In short, the game does everything it can to ease new players into multiplayer, including a fairly solid skill based matchmaking system.
 

Blue_vision

Elite Member
Mar 31, 2009
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Xocrates said:
n short, the game does everything it can to ease new players into multiplayer, including a fairly solid skill based matchmaking system.
Horray! Thanks for the insight :)